Shut down question

[erchess]

The only currently ongoing IRS controversy on my plate has reached the point where the IRS stops talking to you and says to file with the tax court or concede. We filed with the tax court timely but then the shut down hit well before we would have expected any response. Is there any way to make progress during the shut down?

The case btw is an EIC case where the taxpayer is supporting his grown daughter and her young child and claiming EI and Child Credits on the grandkid. I about have the issues with the grandkid settled but the IRS is balking at the exemption for the daughter because she seems to receive no bills at his address nor does she work or go to school. The service is not interested in her affidavit nor affidavits of neighbors church members etc. They are adamant that they want government or commercial relations. We do have the DSS listing her as the decision maker regarding the grandkid's care and their address being in care of the taxpayer at the address on his return. They are wanting one more source and like I say any government or or commercial source would be fine. I may yet recommend giving up on the daughter but since I am here I thought I would ask if there are any other ideas around the watercooler.

[WhiteOleander]

Does the grandchild go to school? Is the mother listed as her parent at the same address? Is any sort of medicaid or WIC claimed with the mother's address listed? We have had luck with Drs records.

[erchess]

The child is three

and she does not go to any kind of day care or preschool. Her Medical care is from the county health department and apparently medicaid is part of how that works. I said DSS because the person in local government who works with people like me who have clients like these is a DSS Social worker. It seems that whatever interactions my client may have had with local government I can with the clients permission find out the county's side of the story by talking to and receiving documents from a social worker. The IRS comes across to me as saying "That's a very nice report from the local government but now we need to hear from a school or a business or state or federal government that the daughter resides at this address."

[ChEAr$]

There is possibility that IRS is balking at daughter's exemption because she maybe actually filed a return or is a dependent on another's return. It happens you know, and I suppose IRS couldn't tell you that due to privacy issues. You reckon?

[Nashville]

Erchess has a winner

If your facts are correct, you have a winner at some point. The myriad of IRS qualifiers have been added at the behest of the IRS itself, whereas I believe all that Congress intended was that adequate proof be furnished.

I believe this to be one of those cases where the IRS knows they have a loser but will insist on court because of the difficulty upon the taxpayer to go to court. IRS has people whose job duties are to represent them legally in court, whereas a court appearance is a tremendous burden on taxpayers.

In answer to your original question, I don't believe anything is going to happen during the shutdown.